BOT Meeting 3.19.26.pptx

Brian Harrigan shared wins for Parker in sports and academic competition. 

Tiffany Testa updated on the school trip to Andros.

Brian updated the final enrollment number for the current school year is 393. The budget was built on the assumption of an enrollment number at 390.

The application numbers for the coming school year ended at 275 - almost exactly as the pre-covid years. 159 applications were for the 7th grade. The budget will be at an assumed enrollment number of 396.

The NEASC accreditation visit went very well reporting positively on the priority areas including progress for support of struggling learners, facility improvements, support of the strategic plan, and the data dashboard. NEASC challenged Parker to continue making progress on teacher salary parity and pipeline. Parker will be awarded the NEASC Decennial Accreditation later this spring. 

Dates for the Board to look forward to include:

- Looking at Student Work, March 25

- Senior Exhibitions, May 6 - 12

- Graduation, June 3

- Community Celebration, June 5

Katrina Tedstone presented the Development dashboard and goals for FY27.

As of March 19, Parker development has raised $169, 700. The anticipated donations for the remainder of the school year will more than cover Development's goal of $250,000. 

This week is Parker Giving Week - a new initiative for the Development Committee aimed at a different time of year than Giving Tuesday. The goal was to raise $10,000 and with a few days left in the week, the Development team has raised $23,000. A Parker Giving Week flyer was handed out by advisors at PLP week and the Development team thinks that is a big reason for the substantial increase in the number of current families giving. 

The FY27 Development Goal is $330,000 and Katrina believes it is achievable as the community gets more educated about the importance of fundraising for Parker. Graduate Families and Friends of Parker have the biggest increase in the giving goal for next year. 

Stefanie Reinhorne reiterated that the development goals are organized around the strategic plan and that has yielded these big results. 

Julie Fredericksen commended Katrina, Brian, and Monique Beganski for their work reaching out to Parker's different communities and finding a successful message when speaking with potential donors. She encouraged the Board to talk to their contacts about Parker and see how they might be able to help - either monetarily or with time.  She reiterated that the June 5th community event is a good opportunity to invite contacts who would like to learn more about Parker. 

Katrina updated that she and Julie attended a Chamber of Commerce of event and encouraged Board members to do the same as another avenue to develop community relationships. There will also be a 'Thank You Donors' event in the future that the Board is encouraged to attend. 

Marie Beam encouraged the Development team and the Board to keep up our momentum and don't take our success as a chance to slow down. 

Michelle McKenna present the FY27 Budget proposal reiterating that the Finance Committee had a dedicated meeting to look over the proposal and has endorsed it. 

 Building the budget proposal included:

- the intention of not creating a surplus

- Favorable interest rates are being used to balance the overall budget which may impact the balancing of future years if rates level out or decrease.

- the Governor's budget proposal which still needs to be approved includes a 4.1% increase for Parker and a $100 per pupil facilities increase

- an enrollment number of 396

- full-time staff numbers are flat year over year and the average teacher raise in Parker's goal of closing the pay gap is 7.7%

- increase in health insurance premiums and participation will continue to be a budget driver

- total budget number of $8,832,898

The Board received the proposal favorably with most commenting about Development's impact in helping Parker 'close the gap' and that the strategic plan's direction to make the Development office self-sustainable has already been accomplished. 

Martin Turnbull reminded the Board that facilities will be a pull on the budget in the future. Marie agreed and added that the Development Committee has already begun to lay the work for a capital campaign. 

Ellen Sturgis and Brian both gave Michelle praise for her thorough and hard work. They reiterated that the pressure of high health insurance costs are keeping Parker from things like eliminating the salary gap but that we are chipping at it with salary increases that are larger than a simple COLA increase. Brian shared that the results of the administration's work towards closing the salary gap has led to the retention of mid-career teachers that otherwise Parker may have been unable to retain.